Sargassum invading Mexican Caribbean again

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According to the Secretary of the Navy, the state government and the Federation have so far exercised 109 million pesos for containment barriers and Sargassian barges.

Cancún, QR. Approximately 4,000 tons of sargassum are offshore towards the coasts of Quintana Roo, according to the forecast of the Secretary of the Navy ( Semar ) released this Monday, July 6.

Enrique Flores Morado, Rear Admiral of the Semar and coordinator of the anti-sargassum strategy in Quintana Roo , assured that they already have six barges and more than 80 operative people to attend to the points of greatest landfall of the alga.

“Efforts are concentrated on 40 beaches that have an overall length of 32,000 linear meters, of which 12 are located in the municipality of Benito Juárez,” said Flores.

Until the first semester of 2020, more than 9,132 tons of the seaweed has been collected from the beaches, of which more than 6,000 were registered during May and June of this year, the rear admiral reported.

The monitoring carried out by Semar anticipated the arrival of 10,000 tons during these days, but the marine currents diverted around 6,000 towards the Yucatan Channel, so the remaining patch of sargassum continues towards the Quintana Roo coasts

Flores Morado explained that so far 109 million pesos contributed by the Federation and the state government have been used for the sargasso barges and the acquisition of 4,252 meters of containment barriers that will be placed in Mahahual, Xcalak, Tulum and Puerto Morelos, as well as three sweepers and two tractors. 

In addition to these resources, Semar received a contribution of more than 46.6 million pesos from three municipalities in Quintana Roo; as well as the third contribution of 39.03 million pesos from two other coastal municipalities in the state; These items have not yet been exercised. 

The rear admiral explained that the more than 9,000 tons of sargassum that have been collected from the beaches and are being taken to the sanitary landfills of each of the seven coastal municipalities of the state (Lázaro Cárdenas, Benito Juárez, Isla Mujeres, Puerto Morelos, Solidaridad , Tulum and Othón P. Blanco), where they previously underwent a composting technique, which consists of centrifuging the algae so that it loses the greatest amount of moisture and its decomposition is more accelerated. 

Flores Morado highlighted that there are several agencies that participate in the work to contain sargassum, such as the Secretaries of the Environment; Tourism; Governorate; Treasury, the Tourism Promotion Fund; the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas; Office of the Environmental Protection and the Federal Terrestrial Maritime Zone, only by the federal government; while on the part of the state administration are the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Strategic Projects Agency as well as the seven coastal municipalities.  

Finally, the rear admiral announced that the arrival of a ship that will be in charge of cleaning the Yucatan channel as well as carrying out investigative work is still awaited. 

Source: noticaribe.com.mx, eleconomista.com.mx

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